Project ID: 2008KY118B
Title: Inventory and assessment of combined sewer overflow discharges within Kentucky communities
Project Type: Research
Start Date: 3/01/2008
End Date: 2/28/2009
Congressional District: Kentucky Sixth
Focus Categories: Wastewater, Treatment, Water Quality
Keywords: pathogens, disinfection, CSO
Principal Investigator: Ormsbee, Lindell (University of Kentucky)
Federal Funds: $ 22,500
Non-Federal Matching Funds: $ 45,021
Abstract: Kentucky currently has 13 communities that are impacted by combined sewer overflow (CSO) discharges. Each of these communities has entered into a consent decree agreement with the state of Kentucky to address ongoing water quality problems associated with such discharges. Given the state of the infrastructure of many of these systems, in-line storage or sewer separation may be cost prohibitive. As a result, alternative treatment strategies such as high rate disinfection may be preferable, at least in the short term. Preliminary experiments conducted in the Spring of 2007 at the University of Kentucky showed some promise for increased pathogen disinfection efficiency by using the oxidant hydrogen peroxide along with metallic catalyst, VTX. This study will attempt to validate these results for a wide range of wastewater characteristics from multiple wastewater systems in Kentucky.